


we can't be flyboys forever

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, M/M, but anyway that's not the point, i just wanted to write feelings stuff, it's literally just feelings, it's more like a mix of legends and new canon and complete fiction, so here, who knows what universe this takes place in? not me, wow i didn't realize that was a tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 00:57:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11369229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Wedge and Luke reunite after time apart and think about the future.





	we can't be flyboys forever

Wedge Antilles was fine, and anyone who thought otherwise was just grasping at strands of turu-grass. Of course, he couldn’t exactly say that to Leia Organa, senator of the New Republic, no matter how good of friends they had become in the past few years. Still, he tried to assuage her concerns as politely as he could.

“Seriously, Leia, I’m completely fine.”

Leia graced him with one of her signature “Do you really think I’m that big of an idiot?” looks (lips pursed, one eyebrow raised.) 

“That’s not what I’ve heard from some of your squadron. From what I’ve heard, you’re overworking yourself, you’re hardly sleeping, and whatever blanks are left in this story, I can fill in based on the three days worth of stubble on your face.”

Wedge self-consciously ran a hand over his jaw. Had it really been three days since he shaved? Not that it mattered; there were more pressing issues to deal with. ‘Some of your squadron.’ Well, that definitely meant Tycho. He and his friend always looked out for each other, but snitching to Leia? That was a new low. If Tycho was worried about him enough to talk to someone else about it, which he would have known would annoy Wedge, he must be hiding his stress less well than he thought he was.

It was nothing worse than usual that he was dealing with. Although he had lost a handful of pilots in the past few weeks, death of his squadron members was nothing new to Wedge. In fact, it was all too routine. But then add to that the day to day bureaucracy of a fledgling government, a war that seemed to stretch unendingly into the future, and a recent uptick in reports of senseless acts of terror to civilians from Imperial sympathizers, the scales upon Wedge Antilles’ shoulders were quite heavy. After a while, that sort of thing would start to wear even the most devoted soldier down. It didn’t help that it had been longer than he cared to think about since he had seen Luke. Having him around always made the galaxy feel just a bit brighter.

He looked back up at Leia, who was still regarding him suspiciously. 

“It’s just regular stress, Leia. Doesn’t make me special or anything, we’re all feeling it. Side-effect of living in a kriffing warzone.”

He regretted snapping at her like that almost immediately. She would be leaving tomorrow—she was just on base temporarily to discuss strategy matters with the higher-ups— and he didn’t want to part on bad terms. Luckily, he noticed, Leia’s glare hadn’t wavered. He inhaled slowly, bracing himself for a lecture.

But to his surprise, Leia shrugged.

“Fine,” she said plainly, no anger apparent in her voice, “you know what’s best for yourself, so I’ll let you handle it.”

 Well, that wasn’t what Wedge had expected. His sister-in-law never usually gave up so easily in an argument.

 “Uhh… alright. Thanks.”

 Leia gave him a smile that revealed nothing. “I’ll see you before I leave tomorrow, Wedge.”

 “Yeah, see you then.” Wedge left her quarters still feeling puzzled.

 

The next morning, he hugged Leia goodbye. And two days later, when he spotted Luke walking to greet him from the other end of the hangar where he was working on his X-wing, he didn’t immediately connect the two events.

Especially since at first he was too busy trying not to topple over under as he caught a full armful of the husband he hadn’t seen in months.

“Luke!” he gasped, surprised as the Jedi wrapped his legs around his waist and kissed him fiercely, as open and unashamed of demonstrating his love in front of others now as he had been when they were younger. Wedge, on the other hand, had never been very comfortable with public displays of affection, and knew he was probably blushing furiously, but couldn’t quite bring himself to mind as he buried his face in Luke’s hair and inhaled the familiar, comforting scent (a mixture of clean cotton, sapir tea, and sunshine, Wedge would have said, if asked to describe it) that was signature to Luke.

“I missed you so much.” Luke said against his neck. He was still clinging to him tightly, but was standing on his own two feet again.

Wedge chose to echo the sentiment by pulling Luke back into another kiss, lasting longer than the previous one. It was several minutes before they pulled away, by which point both men’s breathing had grown notable more ragged, and their eyes were alight.

“Your quarters?” Luke said.

Wedge didn’t need to be asked twice.

...

After, they laid in bed, Wedge with his head on Luke’s chest and one arm draped across his waist, Luke lazily carding through his dark hair in a way that was making Wedge very, very sleepy. But as tempting as sleep sounded, there was something he wanted to ask Luke.

“So, are you gonna tell me what you’re doing here? And I mean the real reason, not whatever excuse you were planning on giving me.”

Luke looked down at him sheepishly.

“Leia messaged me.” He admitted. “She’s worried about you.”

“Yeah, I know. She shouldn’t be.”

“ _I’m_ worried about you, Wedge.” Luke said, expression growing serious.

“Well don’t be.”

Luke looked indignant. “How can you say that to me? Don’t worry about you? What do you think marriage is supposed to be about if it’s not caring whether you’re ok or not? Leia told me you’re not sleeping, you’re not talking to anyone about whatever’s bothering you, so what am I supposed to think? I only get to see you every few months, and that’s hard enough. I at least need to be able to trust that you’re taking care of your damn self.”

Wedge had only seen Luke truly angry a handful of times, and he felt guilty for expanding the list. Mostly, his guilt came from the fact that he knew Luke was in the right here. He scooted further up the bed and placed a repentant kiss on Luke’s jaw.

“I’m sorry.” he said earnestly.

Luke sighed. “I know you are.”

Wedge repositioned himself so that he was situated above Luke, their chests flush, and looking down into his eyes.

“Hey”

Luke hummed a flat tone of acknowledgement and turned his head away.

“ _Hey.”_ Wedge took him gently by the chin and turned his head back to face him. He brought his own face down close to Luke’s. “I promise I’ll do better,” he whispered, his lips near-pressed against Luke’s, “I’ll take better care of myself, if only for your sake.”

“Do it for your own sake you big idiot.” Luke said grumpily, but Wedge could tell he was no longer truly mad.

“We both know that’s never gonna happen, but I can lie if you’d like?”

“You’ve always been a terrible liar.”

Wedge laughed lightly at that.

“Promise me something.” said Luke.

“Alright.”

“When you do need to talk to someone, holo me. I know I might not be able to answer then, or reply right away, but I’ll always try my best. Just because we can’t be together all the time right now doesn’t mean I have to be cut off from you completely.”

Wedge knew Luke was right.

“Ok.” he said “I promise.”

He pressed his lips fully against Luke’s, but Luke furrowed his brow and didn’t immediately reciprocate. He could be so pouty when he wanted to. Wedge raised a quizzical brow and attempted to use his tongue to pry Luke’s lips open, which only caused Luke to press them together tighter. Finally, Wedge stealthily raised his a hand to the area of skin on Luke’s side where he knew he was sensitive, and without warning began to tickle him. Luke spasmed under him and opened his mouth in a gasp of laughter, which is when Wedge was able to finally capture his mouth in a proper kiss.

 ...

Some time later, again, they lay wrapped in each other’s arms.

“It won’t always be like this, you know.” Luke said softly.

“What do you mean?”

“This. The war. Everything. Us going months at a time without seeing each other. This war can’t last forever. We won’t always have to be apart like this.”

“It sure feels like it’s going to last forever. What are we even going to do when it’s over?”

“Get a house, settle down, have sex twenty times a day.”

Wedge snorted. “Well, that last part doesn’t sounds too bad. But, really? You and me settle down? Do you think we’re even capable of that?”

Luke gave him a soft smile. “We can try.”

There was a long pause after that. Luke snuggled closer to him and Wedge traced lazy circles with his finger on his forearm.

“I don’t know what I’ll even do after all this is over.” Wedge said after a while. “I’ve been a soldier for as long as I can remember. I joined this fight when I was nineteen. I’m honestly not sure if I even expected to live to see the end of this thing.”

Luke didn’t immediately say anything. Wedge opening up unprompted was a bit of a rare thing, and he wanted to see if he’d continue if given the chance.

“You’ll have the Jedi Order to rebuild, of course. But what am I going to do? You know I don’t have any stomach for politics. Stars help me if someone tries to make me a diplomat.”

“Don’t worry, Leia’s smart enough to know that’s off the table, and I’m sure she’s warned others. We wouldn’t want to win this war just to have an galactic incident caused by some Corellian flyboy putting his foot in his mouth.” Luke teased.

Wedge laughed at that. 

“You’ll find something that’s right for you.” said Luke. “Didn’t you tell me once you went to farm school back on Corellia?”

Wedge grimaced. “Yeah, and I’ll never forget the smell of nerfs because of it. I’ve had enough farming for a lifetime.”

“Yeah, me too.” said Luke. “So what about when you were a little kid? Was there something you always dreamed of being.”

Wedge laughed. “Yeah, actually. An architect, if you can believe that.”

Luke kissed him on the nose. “That’s adorable.”

“How is wanting to design buildings adorable?”

“No, I’m just picturing you as a kid in your room late at night, playing with blocks and drawing pictures of skyscrapers.”

“Well, you actually aren’t too far off the mark.”

“Oh my god that _is_ adorable.”

“Oh shut up.” Wedge said, despite the fact that he was smiling. “So what about you? What did little farm boy Luke always dream of being.

Luke got a wistful look in his eyes. “A pilot. Always a pilot.”

“Yeah, me too. The architect thing was short-lived, at the end of the day I knew nothing was gonna keep me out of the sky.”

“Well, we can’t be flyboys forever.”

“Yeah, you’ve got that right. Will you still love me when I’m too paunchy to fit in a cockpit?” Wedge joked.

Luke captured his gaze intensely and brought their faces close together. “I will love you until the sun burns out in every star system in this galaxy and every other.”

Wedge felt like all the air had been knocked out of his lungs, in a good way, if that was possible. He wished he knew how to say things like that, like Luke did, that were so corny that they should have sounded ridiculous but coming from him with such genuine tenderness that the weight of his affection was overwhelming. If Wedge didn’t have the same way with words, Luke didn’t seem to mind. It was enough for him just to pull Luke tighter to him and let the easy silence say what he couldn’t.

They laid like that in silence, for a while, before speaking again.

“I’ve got it. You’ll rebuild the Jedi Order, and I’ll just stay at home and nap.”

“And have dinner for me on the table when I get home?”

Wedge laughed. “Uhh I don’t think so. My cooking skills leave much to be desired.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t let me near a stove if I were you unless you want our theoretical house burning down.”

Luke laughed too, but then grew quiet. “There’s so much we don’t know about each other.” he said so softly that Wedge almost missed it.

Wedge kissed him softly. “Hey, it’s ok. What are you worried about?”

“It’s nothing.” said Luke, sounding embarrassed. “Just...what if things are different between us after this? Like, what if we don’t know each other as well as we think we do? What if your feelings for me aren’t the same?”

Wedge took Luke’s hands, both real and prosthetic, in his own and held them close to his chest as he laced their fingers together.

“Ok, now it’s my turn to be pissed off and call you an idiot. What are you kriffing talking about Luke? You’ve been my brother in wings, my best friend, and my lover for years now. How many times have we saved each other’s life? I’d bet my life that we know each other better than 90% of the married people in this galaxy. Flying in the same squadron, sharing quarters like that, late nights together dreaming up plans for what would one day become Rogue Squadron... that’s a special sort of intimacy, Luke. I don’t think we need to worry about that. And if there are things we don’t know about each other, well, when this is all over, we’ll have plenty of time to learn.”

“Ok. Yeah, you’re right. Thank you.” Luke said, but Wedge could tell his thoughts were still elsewhere.

“Hey, if it helps, lets both tell something about ourselves the other doesn’t know right now. You go first.”

“Ok?” Luke said, sounding unsure. “Ummm… I don’t know how to swim?”

Wedge laughed and pushed him playfully. “Well of course you don’t, desert boy.”

“And you do?”

“‘Course I do! I swam all the time growing up. Of course, I haven’t actually gone swimming since I left Corellia, but I think it’s one of those things you don’t forget.”

Luke was smiling a little more now. “Ok, your turn. Tell me something I don’t know about you.”

“Hmmm…” Wedge thought for a moment, “When I was a kid, my family used to call me ‘Veggies’ as a nickname.”

“Veggies?!?” Luke laughed.

“Yeah, I know, it’s really weird.” Wedge said, laughing too.

“Like vegetables???”

“I think that may have been part of it? I honestly don’t know. I also think it had to do with how my name would be pronounced with an Old Corellian accent.”

“Veggies…” Luke said, still recovering himself, “that’s adorable.”

“Hey, didn’t you tell me once that your friends back on Tatooine used to call you ‘Wormy’?” Wedge teased.

“Yeah, that was some crazy thing Biggs came up with. Those nerf-herders never told me why though!”

“Hey!” Wedge exclaimed, mock-offended, “You’re looking at a former nerf-herder!”

“Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry my love.” Luke said, sickeningly-sweet.

“You know,” Wedge started, “I think I know what I want to do when this is all over.”

“Oh yeah?” asked Luke. “What’s that?”

“I think you and I deserve a nice, long vacation somewhere together.”

Luke smiled, clearly drawn to this idea. “And where will we go?”

“Oh, we’re gonna go several places. Anywhere my husband desires. Like I said, this is going to be a _long_ vacation.” He paused for a moment. “But also, I was thinking, I want to take you home. To Corellia. Show you the places where I grew up, see Coronet City, and the shipyards, eat rhyscate made with real Whyren’s Reserve…”

Luke was absolutely beaming at him. “That sounds perfect.”

“So we’ll start at Corellia, and that will be my pick. Then where do you want to go?”

“Not Tatooine, that’s for sure. Too many ghosts there. I’d say I’m sorry I can’t show it to you, but there’s nothing to see anyway.”

“That’s ok, you can choose anywhere.”

“Well how about someplace new then? Somewhere neither of us have been. We can set out, just the two of us, and end up someplace no one will ever find us.”

“I like the sounds of that. The two of us, out in the vastness of space, just like old times. Will we take X-wings?”

“Yeah, we’ll steal a couple of X-wings and takeoff.”

“Steal? You seem to be forgetting that I have my own X-wing currently.”

“Ok, fine. We’ll take just the one and I’ll sit in your lap.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time…” Wedge joked.

They continued on like that for some time, talking about the places they’d go together once the war was over. And even though it still seemed far away, and stars knows they had a while before they got there, making plans for the future they’d eventually get to have together made it seem a little bit more real, a little bit closer. Tangled together in Luke’s arms, dreaming about the soon-to-be days when nothing would stop them from being together, Wedge noticed that the stresses of the previous few weeks felt of little concern to him for the moment.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the sappy nonsense. Comments always appreciated! Find me on tumblr @softwedge.


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